When a wall-to-wall carpet is installed, a major problem is stretching it so that it lies flat prior to anchoring it over spiked "grippers" around the periphery of the room. The difficulty is that there is no vantage point outside the area to be covered from which the carpet can be pulled taut, and the operator has to work while positioned on the carpet itself. He has somehow to maneuver the carpet while it is bearing his weight.
There are two standard approaches to the problem. The more usual one, largely for the smaller domestic situation, involves the use of a "kicker". This is a metal rod bearing at one end a pad equipped with an array of slanted spikes, usually of adjustable length, and at the other a cushioned pad at right angles to the rod's length.
The operator kneels on the carpet with one knee, and with the spikes engaged in the carpet, delivers a series of vigorous kicks against the cushioned pad with the other, so that the carpet is progressively pushed away from him towards the wall. Moving the carpet therefore requires that the frictional resistance of the carpet with the floor, produced not only by the weight of the carpet itself but also by the operator's own weight, be overcome, in addition to dragging the weight of the carpet itself.
It is well known in the trade that, use of a "kicker" is hard on the knee-and-hip joints of carpet installers, and that this tends eventually to terminate their activity in this industry at a relatively early age.
An alternative procedure, used mainly for larger installations, is to drive the spiked pad by slowly applied thrust against a counterabutment formed by a wall, using a hydraulic or mechanical thrusting device and a suitable assembly of thrust-bearing extension rods. This has the disadvantage of being cumbersome and of dependence on the structural strength of the opposing wall.